In the current health care environment which is characterized by rapidly evolving biomedical knowledge, increased availability of potentially relevant data, and rapidly shifting financial and organizational structure of health care, medical errors are widespread and patient safety is at risk. The need for careful evaluation and implementation of successful information technology solutions has never been greater. The primary need served by the AMIA Annual Symposium is to provide a credible, peer-reviewed forum for sharing the leading edge advances in medical informatics. The theme chosen for the 2001 Annual Symposium, which will take place November 3-7 at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel in Washington, DC is "AMIA 2001: A Medical Informatics Odyssey - Envisioning the Future, Lessons from the Past". Within the context of the Symposium, the overall aim of this conference grant is to critically examine and promote the role of informatics research in enhancing patient safety and preventing medical errors by: Offering a designated track on Patient Safety within the AMIA 2001 Annual Symposium Providing an interactive forum in which patient safety and medical informatics experts can discuss common issues Disseminating widely the papers and presentations in the Patient Safety Track through a Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association Symposium Supplement and other conference products.